BLOG WEB DESIGN

Before we start, to save any confusion, there are two versions of WordPress – and both are free.WordPress.com is a hosted version. It’s a great introduction to the WordPress platform and ideal for running basic websites, though it has its limitations. However, it’s completely free to use – you simply go to the WordPress dotcom website and sign up. You’ll get a domain name like mysite dot WordPress dot com so the only cost involved is if you want to buy your own domain.

However, once you’ve got your head around the hosted version you might find yourself wanting more… and this is where the.org, self-hosted version comes into play.The software is still free but you will need to purchase some webspace to host it on, which costs anything from about £30 upwards, and a domain name, which is just a few pounds a year for a.co.uk. You’ll also have to install the software (though many web hosts will do that for you). But in terms of monetary costs, that’s it.

2. WordPress grows with you

For most people, their first experience of WordPress is the.com version. It’s easy to access and use. There’s no complicated installation or backing up to do, your site is saved across several servers and the software upgrades automatically. It will even automatically sort genuine comments from the spam! Adding pages, posts and changing content is easy too, though the dashboard can take a bit of getting used to. There are limitations on what you can do with it though. There are only about a hundred templates, you can’t edit or customise them, you can’t add plugins etc. But it is easy to get started, especially if you don’t want to get your hands dirty!

You might be happy with the hosted version, but once you’ve found your way around WordPress you may want to do more with it, and this is when people switch to the.org version. This version has thousands of themes available, both free and premium, and you can edit the code on which your site is built to make it unique. You can transfer your existing.com site across so you don’t lose the content, and it uses the same user-friendly dashboard. You have to be far more pro-active though – you need to install plugins to do many of the things the.com version did automatically. But with tens of thousands of plugins available, rather than using a “one size fits all” solution you can find the one that works perfectly for you and your site. As you understand more about how WordPress works, you’ll find yourself delving into the code to change everything about your site, from the fonts and colours to the way each individual page displays. It’s not always straightforward, and it can be downright frustrating, but look on it as a journey of discovery, with the perfect website waiting at the end!

3. WordPress can be a team project

The trouble with web design software such as DreamWeaver and WebPlus is that it is installed locally, on one computer. Fine if only one person is responsible for the website, but not so good if you are working collaboratively or you want to be able to update your website from home and the PC is at work. Because WordPress is web-based, you can access it wherever you are, and you can set up multiple accounts so other members of your team can edit it too. You can set different levels of access so people can only edit their own posts, or can edit, add and change all the content but not get at the theme files. There are even plugins available that let you set different actions for every single person who can access your site.

4. WordPress isn’t just about blogging

Though WordPress was initially created as a blogging platform, it’s become a lot more now and is often used as a content management system. Rather than having a website and separate blog, you can integrate them into one site. You can create static pages as well as blog-style ones, add contact forms, forums, gallery, directories and more. You don’t even have to use posts at all, and there are templates available that will make your site look absolutely nothing like a blog!

5. WordPress has lots of support

Ever bought some software, come across a problem and not been able to find the solution? Frustrating, isn’t it! The great thing about WordPress is that there is a lot of support out there. The official sites – both.com and.org – have detailed documentation on every aspect and very active forums where you can ask questions. You’ll also find that lots of the themes and plugins have their own support communities too. If you get stuck, just Google the problem and the chances are the answer will be out there!

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These days there are so many factors to have a look at when it comes to a perfect web design solution for your business. From look and feel all the way to practicality, implementing and maintaining your website. This is where a CMS (Content Management System) is very useful to meet all these prerequisites.

A CMS web design solution will make anyone’s life easier whether you are a beginner or novice when it comes to creating a web site and maintaining it. And to make it even more sufficient these CMS platforms comes with loads of plugins, including plugins to better SEO and so many more features.

The two CMS platforms I myself use and specialise in is WordPress and Joomla. Below I will go in a little more detail on each of these CMS web design solutions, laying out there benefits and most important features.

Joomla

Joomla CMS is specialised for easy management of many different type of content in many different positions on a website whilst making it all look good and perform fast. When it comes to a blog it would be best to run Joomla with a WordPress installing on the same domain and sharing the same MySQL database.

Joomla Pros

Installation size on server is roughly 30MB and with working Template and site results to about 100MB
Friendly for all different users including Developers, Designers and Administrators
Huge resource based community for support and help with developing websites
Is growing rapidly and improving itself for over more than 3 years now

Joomla Cons

Still lacks when it comes to user friendliness for the novice to average computer user
Not best CMS when it comes to blogging
Does not work well on linux server not SuPHP enabled

WordPress

This is the best solution for bloggers and blogging websites and as you know Google loves blogs. With the latest WordPress 3 and a WordPress 3 template you also have multiple menu positions and layouts as Joomla and one can create a web site with a static home page and much more.

WordPress Pros

Very simple to use as it is right out of the box with no modifications
Best for blogging or sharing your experiences and thoughts in a sequential matter
Even the most non computer friendly users can get the hang of it quick and easy

WordPress Cons

Not developer friendly
Upgrades can bring more bugs and incompatibility issues with other plugins than fixes
For some reason the WordPress community complains the most

We were on a roll with the first article in this “Web Design Unveiled” theme, so I thought it was a good idea to present five more interesting and little-known facts about the design process so that you can count yourself among the well-informed. Five more, essential truths related to the web design process thus presented:

1. All Websites Look Different When Viewed on Monitors with Different Resolutions

The higher the screen resolution is, the smaller and sharper a web design will look. As screen resolution gets lower, however, the same web design appears larger and grainier. This is becoming less and less of a factor as high resolution monitors are becoming more and more affordable. But many users still access the Internet with computers and monitors that are over five years old. For these users, a modern web design will look less than optimal. For the sake of progress, most web designers elect to target the most popular screen resolutions when crafting a site.

2. Fonts will Appear Differently on Different Computers

Windows and Macintosh computers render fonts differently. Additionally, the fonts that display on a web page can be dependent upon the fonts that are installed on the user’s computer. This is yet another reason web pages look differently from one computer to the next. Although there are ways to overcome this reality, the vast majority of websites in existence today do not incorporate such a fix.

At the time of this writing, Google commands about 88.8% of the global web search market. The nearest competitor, Bing enjoys 4.2%. Any website owner who wishes to be successful online needs to rank well on Google search results. The only way to accomplish this is to adhere to Google’s way of doing things and adjust the content of your website accordingly.

4. Just Because a Website Exists Doesn’t Guarantee People Will Visit It

The Internet is filled with websites that have failed to make an impression on their intended audience. Online success and visibility of a website does not just happen. People need to be able to find your website when searching for relevant keywords, and this requires an active marketing and search engine optimization strategy. This takes time, effort, and maintenance, and is a harsh reality all website owners have to face. This leads us to the final point.

5. In Order to become and Remain Competitive, a Website Needs to Change Frequently

The most successful websites are those that are more than just static information about your company. It would be wise to consider incorporating a business blog, community forum, or image gallery that can provide search engines with a steady stream of new content to index. The more relevant, useful, and unique information that a website provides, the more authoritative search engines will deem it to be. Whether you manage the creation and optimization of content yourself, or you hire a professional to do it for you, it must be done.

Since the arrival of Pope Benedict XIV at the Twitter scene, I’ve been wondering how many people who don’t know how to use the Internet are still out there in the Western world. But an even more intriguing question is this: how come so many people are proficient at using it? Have they been taught web browsing at school? Did they have to read “Internet For Beginners”? Have they taken any special courses?

The answer of course is that they learnt things on the fly. Our cognitive abilities allow us to instinctively absorb new information, recognize new patterns and adapt to new environments and routines. We don’t need special instructions or conscious decision-making regarding the best approach to knowledge accumulation. We want to do something and we try to do it. We “muddle through”.

I borrow here the language of the web usability guru Steve Krug, and in particular his “Don’t Make me Think” book, considered by many the “bible” of user experience. Muddling through is Krug’s third “fact of life” of real-world Web use, just after scanning and “satisficing”. Below I’m going to prove that muddling through is not just an effective and time-saving approach to information discovery that humans simply opt for but rather it’s the way we live in general. Our minds are conditioned to muddle through. Better web designs are impossible without proper recognition of this fundamental human nature.

How Do We Really Use Websites?

So how many of you read the user guide booklet that came with your new iPhone? What about the “Convention Used in This Book” page in your latest educational book? Mu guess is: not many. The same is true for the way we use websites. Everyone’s busy, everyone’s just trying to figure out how to get to a particular place and doing anything else seems like a waste of time. Now the funny thing is that everyone’s got their own way of doing things. Even when it comes to a standard process such as navigating a website, some people will follow the links in the main navigation, while others will use the search button or start scanning paragraphs for clues.

One important implication of this tendency to muddle through is that people will often use websites in unexpected ways. Designers sometime envisage a perfect way of completing a particular process, e.g. you click on this link, you fill the form, you browse the available options and choose one as indicated in the instructions displayed to you left, you click the big “submit” button, etc. But in practice there are many ways to browse a website, use a web application, or even fill a contact form (“should I put my phone in the specially designated field or attach it in the body of the message like I always do?”). As a result, when offered a detailed record of how websites are actually used, some designers might think “who on Earth would let those monkeys anywhere near a computer?” Such attitude ignores of course that web users are not trying to figure out what the brilliant designer had in mind when creating the interface. They just want to get what they came for. If they have muddled through something and it worked, why shouldn’t they try the same approach next time?

A well quoted example of such interface misconception is Steve Krug’s anecdote about some users typing full URLs (including www.) into the Yahoo search box every time they want to go to a particular website. Krug explains:

If you ask them about it, it becomes clear that some of them think that Yahoo is the Internet, and that this is the way you use it.

Muddling through, being a rather crude approach to cognition, is clearly prone to errors. But many errors, like the one above, don’t have a great impact on the end result. If a website is used on a regular basis, an incomplete understating might slow things down a notch or make the user miss out on alternative options. But if you compare this to a structured approach to web browsing that involves careful review of published instructions and analysis of all potential routes and uses of the interface, then muddling through certainly sounds attractive. As Jeffrey Veen puts it:

[..] we’re much more like motorists behind the wheel of a car in an unfamiliar city. We have a clear destination in mind, and are making split-second decisions while negotiating a confusing new place. And we are doing a task that demands our attention at the same time. No wonder we don’t read. We’re just trying to get done with this nonsense as quickly as possible.

I believe this to be a well accepted proposition in the realm of user experience. However, besides this need for time-optimization there is also an alternative perspective for understanding the muddling through process where the explanation is found in the depths of the human psyche. In such view, we don’t simply choose to muddle through. Muddling through is what makes us who we are.

Psychology of Muddling Through – the Doing Mode

In the field of Psychology, the process of muddling through is recognized as part of the “Doing mode”. Doing mode is the function of the mind that allows rational critical thinking. Doing mode is what allows us to build bridges, send men to space, or write our thesis. It also governs the process of learning from repetition, a crucial ingredient to the success of the muddling through approach.

According to Prof. Mark Williams from Oxford University, Doing mode usually begins with recognition of a gap between our perceived current state and some alternative state that we would prefer to be in. In the context of the Web, this could be as simple as “I sit here bored to death; I would rather be watching a video of a skateboarder hurting himself”. This perceived gap triggers an automatic pattern of mind activity, which sole aim to bring us closer the desired state.

Doing mode is responsible for analysing, planning, comparing, judging, discriminating, etc. What might be less obvious to some readers (especially those who never practiced meditation) is that these processes are usually instantaneous and unconscious. In the West, thinking is often considered a domain of consciousness. This is not true, however. Many people would be ready to claim thoughts as their own. But when asked where their thoughts came from, most would be left bemused. Thoughts arise spontaneously. In a state of concentration the trend of thought can generally be directed towards a specific subject but the arising of thoughts seems as if mental phenomena had a life of their own.

What I’m getting at is that Doing mode, and hence muddling through, is like an automatic pilot. We don’t choose to do it, we just do it. In some sense Doing mode can be thought of as an elaborate survival mechanism. The existence of a desired state usually leaves us little room for considering why such state is desired or what the optimal way of achieving it is. Doing mode forces us to strive towards the goal, regardless of whether it was chosen in a sober, conscious state of mind or not. In fact, the goal does not even have to be “real”. It can be based on an ephemeral emotion that develops into a mood (interestingly this is how stress arises – the mind considers a negative feeling to be a problem, a gap that must be overcome, triggering an array of memories, thoughts, and impulses that have a similar emotional hue in order to find a “solution”). This helps explain why when feeling a little down or lonely we can end up spending hours surfing for pictures of cats playing piano without even noticing.

Intuitive Web Design

Doing mode is not something designers need to fight against (although see “Conclusion” below for a brief mention of an alternative mode). Instead, designers need to try capture this somewhat primitive mind activity by allowing it to freely channel towards a positive outcome (finding information, buying products online, leaving a feedback, etc.).

If we compare web design to building a house, it is often too tempting for an architect to assume the house being used by a perfect gentlemen, who will always politely knock on the door, wipe his shoes on the “Welcome” mat, take of his hat and put it on the designated coat rack, and head to the dining room, never stepping outside the corridor carpet. The real user of the house, however, turns out to be a caveman who breaks the kitchen window with his club to get in, and rummages through the garbage bin in search for food.

The role of the architect is not to discriminate between the gentleman and the caveman and label one as “right” and the other as “wrong” or “crazy”. The architect should instead recognize the nature of the house’s users. If putting a gate in the kitchen will benefit the users, then that’s what needs to be done. Decorating the dining room is not the priority.

In web design the importance of muddling through is most commonly recognized in navigation, although the approach can be observed in a much wider range of web interactions. The first step is of course to recognize that navigating a website is very different from navigating a physical space, such as a building. When we’re online, it’s not immediately clear where we are and where we are heading towards. We cannot even tell how big the website is!

When building websites, our first task should be to mitigate those obvious shortcomings of the Web, which might otherwise hinder the user’s instinctive drive. Faced with a Doing mode, long, written instructions usually become redundant. A better solution is to follow conventions, which can come from other websites and computer applications (e.g. an arrow next to drop down menus or putting a “careers” link in the footer) or the real world (e.g. 3D-looking buttons). Anything that aids scanning and immediate recognition of the information structure is also a huge plus. In general, to create an intuitive design we need to stop thinking about writing paragraphs to fill empty space and focus instead on building a proper infrastructure, putting up traffic signs, etc.

Operating in a very dynamic environment, websites often try to introduce new ideas and new ways of interacting with the user. These ideas might require a new perspective in order to be used effectively, and thus the error-prone muddling through process can lead to confusion and misuse of the service. This does not, however, imply that we should build barricades to prevent people from experimentally figuring things out. We just need to make sure that the user is most likely to muddle through along a path that maximizes the benefits from learning-by-doing, encourages further exploration, and enhances the user’s understanding of the new service, its functionality, and scope.

There is a whole arsenal of potential solutions out there that could be leveraged to channel user’s instincts. A more recent idea in web usability, progressive reduction, is a great example of just how much intelligence interfaces can acquire. Of course, every website faces its own set of challenges, and the point of this article is merely to emphasise the importance of the muddling through process. It may not be the way we would like people to use the web but it is the way they really use it. We must face this fact.

Conclusion

Muddling through is not a niche approach to using the Web. It is the human way of using the Web and is true even for the most web-savvy people (or especially for web-savvy people). The reason why the process often doesn’t receive the recognition it deserves is because we are not aware of it. The fact that it’s subconscious does not mean it cannot be harnessed. It does, however, require thorough analysis of our emotional and behavioural tendencies in order for it to be helpful in building smarter web interfaces.

As most things in nature, Doing mode has its opposing force. In addition to the Doing mode, human mind can also operate in a state of awareness and directed attention that is devoid of judgment, allowing us to directly experience the present moment. Psychologists have labelled this state “Being mode”. Though not ideal for navigation, we might prefer users to be in a Being mode when faced with a new idea that would be discarded in the Doing mode due to biased views. In such a scenario, we might want to shake the user out of his day-dreaming mode and become awake and alert, seeing things with a clearly comprehensive mind and inviting the user to re-examine his own condition.

Those of you familiar with Buddhism or a similar philosophy might already know what I’m talking about. This is certainly not the sort of idea that would be regularly echoed in mainstream discussions. For the sake of brevity I’ll leave the Reader with just this enigmatic introduction to the Being mode (the state of awareness). In the near feature I will write an article explaining this alternative way of engaging audience with deserving depth and detail. In the meantime stay tuned for the upcoming article publications on our blog.

Today’s technology has made it much easier for everyday men and women with average skill sets to produce professional and comprehensive websites for their businesses, family memories and more. It wouldn’t be possible for the average person to create and launch a website without the help of web design software.

Web design software was created to help individuals with average computer skills execute simple tasks in order to create comprehensive, attractive websites. Initially, web design software was very basic but, over the past few years, the programs and features of this software have become significantly more advanced.

If you’re looking to create your first website using web design software, we suggest looking for these 5 features to help make things easier:

2. Visual Site Design. It’s important that your site contains content but it’s also important to have a nice design. Visual Site Design allows you to choose backgrounds and images that suit your needs. You’d be surprised, but the colors and layout of your website can significantly impact your visitor’s experience.

3. Photo Gallery Creator. A popular feature for many when creating a new website is a photo gallery. Whether you’re creating a website from a hobby or to showcase your family memories, photos are important. A photo gallery creator makes it easy to upload photos, insert them into a photo gallery and create easy-to-use navigation for your visitors.

4. Blog Design Software. Many website creators are becoming more and more dependent on blog design software. Setting your website up as a blog (or adding a blog to your website) is an easy and quick way to add content to your website. Blog software also allows visitors to comment on your articles and bookmark your article with several different social media sites.

5. Shopping Cart Creator. A significant number of people designing their own websites are creating them to sell a product or service. A very important element for any shopping site is a shopping cart. To design a shopping cart on your own would be nearly impossible for the average novice web designer but an easy-to-use shopping cart creator will do all the work for you – that’s the greatest thing about this software right there!

In today’s world, many businesses and services are discovered by customers online. That is why websites are fast becoming the face of the organizations. This invaluable marketing tool needs to help put its owner’s best foot forward so that visitors are intrigued enough to browse the site, gather information or make a purchase. However, web designers cannot create all web sites equally and the design and structure of a site will depend on the website’s purpose. For example, a site that is selling t-shirts will probably have some basic elements in common with a blog, while the remaining visuals and features will cater to the intended goal of the site. Site owners should know what different characteristics are important in different types of sites so that they gain the maximum benefit from their web presence.

E-Commerce

A web site that is made to sell products or services is called an e-commerce site. The main feature on a site like this is a shopping cart. This software allows buyers to add items to their cart and have them saved as they browse other products. Once the visitor has selected all the items they intend to buy, the shopping cart takes them through a check out process, which will confirm their choices, ask for shipping and payment details and then let the client checkout. An ecommerce site also has some type of inventory system installed. This lets the site owner organize the product, add new items, keep inventory levels up to date and perform many other inventory tasks. Another important element in ecommerce sites is the payment method or processor.

Blog

A blog is a personal journal that a user publishes online. This medium has expanded over the years and now includes company blogs, professional blogs and other informative types of sites. Since blogs are a type of journal entries, thus the main focus is on the content that is published by date. A date stamp is usually present on each blog post and has the ability to display text, images, videos and other objects within a post. Many blogs are meant to be maintained and edited online, so there is a component that allows a user to log in online and add, edit or delete posts, insert images and perform other tasks in a password protected administration panel.

Corporate Site

Websites for businesses can be simple and straight forward or extremely large and complicated. In most cases, a corporate site is meant to provide information about an organization and has an ‘About Us’ page and usually a page that talks about the firm’s services or products. Another major part of such sites is the ‘Contact’ page. This can include details like phone numbers, email ids and address.

As you can see every type of site has their own different elements that make them unique. A designer needs to be aware of these elements and develop a site that highlights these aspects, so that the site performs well and accomplishes its purpose.

How important is social media marketing to the small business owner? Well it depends on what you want to achieve. If you are looking to take your brand to a national or global marketplace then yes – invest in social media marketing. If you are a small business whose products and services are primarily geared to servicing your local area, then the question needs to be asked:

‘How much time do you have to dedicate to raising your social media profile and what return on investment will it provide in terms of sales or market growth?

Websites versus Social Media – what to focus on?

Websites make sales, social media pages generally do not. Establishing good search engine rankings for your website should be the first goal for new start-ups so potential customers can find you. Great content and the ability to convert visitors into sales create a successful online campaign.

Building a list should be the prime focus of tapping into the potential of your site traffic, otherwise opportunities are lost. You have the three time convincers, those people who need to connect with you more than once to be convinced to invest in your product or service. List building provides the opportunity to stay in touch with customers that have yet to purchase and gives them a chance to get to know you more.

Social media can help connect at a deeper level with potential customers and used well can drive traffic to your website via promotions and competitions. Integrated with your blog; social media pages can create a coordinated online marketing campaign with your website to build your brand. Most people using social media are doing so for the same purposes as you – to promote themselves and for its social aspect. That means sharing photos, videos, music, humour, inspiration, information, advice and connecting with stars, media and people of interest.

When embarking on an integrated social media campaign you will need to think about what it is that you are going to share (that’s not directly selling) with your followers? What have you got to offer that other people and businesses will find intriguing, inspiring, entertaining or useful?

Building Your Brand – Facebook, Twitter and Blogging

One thing I know is that people want to connect with you personally, they want to see your face on your social media profile not a logo. The exception to this is if you own a well-known magazine, trade journal or charity. Otherwise, my advice is to post a good photo.

Social media web design provides the opportunity to build your brand through images, slogans and profile information. Important is your by-line, if people get what you are about in an instant through the use of visual media and a one liner, the light goes on…connections can be made. When creating your slogan or by-line ask yourself ‘What is your higher purpose’ for doing what you do. Think in terms of how your products and services create value for people, ultimately what is it you are trying to achieve for them?

Transfer that message and branding through your Facebook page, Twitter page and Tumblr blog and when integrated with your website you have created a coordinated online social marketing campaign. Social media web design gives the ‘wow’ factor to your social media pages.

Let’s talk about Blogging

Blogging if used cleverly can boost your search engine rankings and establish you as an expert in your field. To save time, write your blog posts all at once and queue them for release at set times each day with automated posting to your Twitter and Facebook pages. EBusiness Courses offers an integrated social media web design package that does all of this for you, except for writing the blog content. Writing a blog takes commitment on your part and if you are using the medium to establish yourself as an expert, no one knows your business like you do.

We all want our websites to look as though the development and web design was done professionally, but hiring a professional to handle the development can cost you a pretty penny. Luckily, there are alternatives that you can use that will give you that professional-development look, without that professional web design bill.

4 Great DIY Website Creation Services

It has become easier than ever to achieve the web design you have in mind. Online services now offer wonderful development tools and templates to help you create the site of your dreams. Here are just a few of the web design services that are available today, all of them either free or at a very low cost:

Weebly – A free development service that is very easy to use. There are tons of templates to choose from, whether you want to create a website for your personal business or a blog. The best part is that the web design consists of simply dragging and dropping. It doesn’t get much easier than this.

Squarespace – Another design service that has been very popular in recent years. This service also allows for development of websites and blogs, but unlike Weebly, Squarespace charges for their services. The reason for the cost (which can be as cheap as $8-16 per month) is that with the subscription, you also are provided with unlimited bandwidth and storage. Very helpful, and much cheaper than hiring someone for development.

WordPress – Mainly used for blogging, but highly customizable, this web design service is the most-used in the world today. There are endless templates that you can choose from, but if you want to add your own personal flair and you know some web development tricks of your own, this can be the perfect tool for you. Aside from the flexibility, this is also a free design service.

Wix – Similar to Weebly, Wix is another service that allows you to create a website with no coding necessary. They provide their free service with free hosting and allow for integration with social media websites like Facebook and Twitter. Expanding your web presence to include social media is not only the smart thing to do, but it is becoming imperative to do so to compete in today’s environment.

All of these are viable options for you to use. All you need to do is decide what your needs are and there will be a service that is available to cater to how you want your website to look and function.

Professional looking website development isn’t as difficult as it was in the past, and there’s no need to be intimidated. These web design services are simple to use, and the help they provide is phenomenal. A beautiful, functional website is just a few clicks away. Get your website out of the 20th century and use one of these amazing web design services to jumpstart your business or blog as soon as possible!

I have been designing websites since 1997, and since that time, there have literally been numerous web design tools introduced each year, many claiming to greatly simplify the process of designing a website. With the plethora of options now available for creating a site, consumers can easily become baffled with the many options to choose from.

In this article I will discuss how to find the right web design tools for your needs.

1. Define your specific needs

First, you need to define exactly what you want your site to accomplish, as this will dictate which web design tools you should consider. If iwhat you need is strictly an opinion or information site, a simple blog might suffice. On the other hand, if you have a database to access, or want to conduct transactions, you will most likely need to hire a professional. I recommend writing down the goals of your site to get a better handle on the scope of the project.

2. Determine your skill and commitment level

If you just want to create a personal website, selecting professional web design tools like Dreamweaver and Photoshop will be plain overkill. These programs are meant for professional web designers, and the casual hobbyist, unless extremely determined, will most likely be overwhelmed with these tools. A more reasonable solution will be to utilize web-based, template driven tools for creating sites. On the other hand, if you need a sophisticated site but cannot handle working with professional-grade software, it may make sense to hire a professional.

3. Set a reasonable budget, and don’t be a freebie hunter

I have tried out some free web design tools and they are for the most part not very useful. You will most likely need to spend some money on such things as books, tutorials, and basic software. If you try chasing free tools that may or may not exist, you will probably waste a lot of time and end up with web design tools that prove unsatisfactory.

After defining your needs, your commitment level, and budget, you may want to consider these “best of breed” web design tools:

The best tools for professionals: Dreamweaver and Adobe Photoshop.

These two programs have been the de factor standard for professionals since the very beginning. Although these web design tools can handle most tasks, professionals will still need a good HTML reference book or two as well.

The best web design tool for non-professionals: WebWizard

This is the best non-professional solution among many similar programs that allow you to build websites with nothing more than basic word processing skills. WebWizard allows you to select your site’s overall look from hundreds of pre-designed, professional templates. So while your site may not look completely unique, it will definitely look professional.

The best tool for creating a blog site: WordPress

I know Blogger is quite popular, but WordPress is a better tool in my opinion because it allows for more customization and is more extensible in terms of additional features. Also, one can use the WordPress blogging platform to make sites that do not look like blog sites at all. In this sense, WordPress can be used as a true web design tool instead of a simple blog tool.